Legend of the Fairbank Rubies
The Legend of the Fairbank Rubies or the Sibling treasure legend is a legend about treasure that is said to lie somewhere near the Sibling Islands. It is mentioned in Ruby Redfort, Take Your Last Breath, and discovered to actually be true. The Legend The rough story Eliza Fairbank (Ruby Redfort's great-great-great-great grandmother) was sailing to South America with all her treasure on her ship, the Seahorse. The ship was attacked by pirates off the coast somewhere near Twinford. The pirates attempted to take all the treasure and kill everyone on board. However, they hadn't killed everyone and the rest of the crew rose up from below decks to defend the ship. There was a violent battle, and eventually the ship burned and sank to the bottom of the sea. Some of the pirates had escaped to their ship, but others went down with the Seahorse and its crew. Eliza Fairbank was presumed dead, although some variations of the story said that Eliza had been captured by the pirates. Some versions told of a beautiful woman robbing sailors in the area after the event, and some said that she had been kept as the pirates' prisoner. What Martha saw Martha Fairbank, Eliza Fairbank's then four-year-old daughter, survived the attack by pirates and subsequent shipwreck. She reported a lot more detail on the story, but people dismissed it as wishful thinking or rambling as she was so young and had experienced such terrible trauma. Martha said that the pirates, along with the jewels, took her mother with them off the ship. She said that some pirates escaped with the Fairbank Rubies and Eliza's casket of jewels and sailed on a raft to one of the Sibling Islands, although she couldn't tell which one as she had hidden inside an apple barrel to stop them from finding her. She described it as a rock "guarded by a golden bird"Ruby Redfort, Take Your Last Breath, Chapter 28. She heard the pirates say that nobody from the town would find the cave and heard them decide to hide the treasure on a ledge above the tidal pool. At night, Martha crept out of her barrel as the pirates were asleep and explored the caves, scratching an "M" in the rock so she could find her way back. She did this for three nights. On the third night, when she was beginning to lose hope of escaping, she heard a whispering, mournful sound. The sound got louder and louder until the pirates woke up, screaming about a "monster" and a "devil of the deep"Ruby Redfort, Take Your Last Breath, p.226. There was a big rock ledge over the cave entrance, which she described as being like a "giant's door"Ruby Redfort, Take Your Last Breath, p.226. In the middle of the night, lightning struck the cave and it came crashing down into the water. Martha described a "whirling thing" that sucked the barrel down and out of the caves. She resurfaced far from the island, and the waves carried her to the shore. The barrel broke in half as she reached the shore and she looked on as "a star fell from the heavens". (Later it is discovered that the "star" was in fact the asteroid YKK 672.) Martha then told the story to everyone who would listen, as she had swallowed the truth serum produced by the Sea Whisperer. Nobody believed her though; they thought she was lying or traumatised. She told her story to John Elridge Featherstone, who treated her for ravings and fever. He wrote it down in a book, which Ruby reads to find out this information.Ruby Redfort, Take Your Last Breath, p.226 The Lullaby The lullaby is handed down in the Fairbank family to Sabina Redfort and then Ruby Redfort. It is about the legend, but it is quite cryptic, so nobody realizes it holds clues to the location of the treasure except Ruby. The lullaby goes: "Oh my rubies, your mother's jewel, You lie there still as a tidal pool. When the stars begin to fall, You will hear the ocean call. When you hear that whispered sound, You will know that you are found. A golden bird guards over you My little gem my words are true."Ruby Redfort, Take Your Last Breath, Chapter 38 The lullaby is about the Fairbank rubies, which are hidden above the tidal pool, which is mentioned in the lullaby. The "whispered sound" refers to the Sea Whisperer, and the reference to the stars falling is about the asteroid calming the currents so the cave is accessible. The "golden bird" is the rock that Martha mentioned in her version of the story. Sabina Redfort changed the word "rubies" to "Ruby" when she sang it to Ruby as a baby. References Category:Take Your Last Breath Category:Legends